£ffect  of  .Alcohol 

on  tl>e 

~3Deatt)  3\ate 


b?  Walter  £.  Vail 

(Tall  33uil£>lng,  San  TFranclscd 


s  -**  *  * 

*- 

r. 

V* 


< 


lo  l  ,  \  (o 

I  I  \1  \  °[  C- 

A  BOUT  seventy  years  ago  a  Quaker  applied  to 
an  English  life  insurance  company  for  life 
insurance  and  was  asked  ten  per  cent  extra 
because  he  was  a  total  abstainer,  as  it  was  then 
believed  that  a  total  abstainer  could  not  live  as 
long  as  one  who  used  liquor.  He  refused  to 
pay  the  increased  rate  and  said  he  would  prove 
the  theory  wrong  and,  if  I  am  correctly  informed, 
organized  the  United  Kingdom  Temperance  and 
General  Provident  Institution  of  London  in  1841. 

The  Compay  kept  its  total  abstainers  and  non¬ 
abstainers  in  two  separate  classes.  In  1903  the 
Company  published  the  results  of  its  experience. 
The  moderate  drinkers  had  died  at  the  rate  of 
T00.4  per  cent  of  the  death  table;  and  the  total 
abstainers  at  the  rate  of  74.3  per  cent.  Moderate 
drinkers  as  compared  with  total  abstainers  showed 
a  death  rate  of  thirty-five  per  cent  higher.  These 
figures  are  especially  significant  as  they  cover  a 
very  long  period  of  time  (over  sixty  years)  and 
expected  deaths  of  about  fifteen  thousand,  thus 
giving  sufficient  numbers  for  the  law  of  averages 
to  obtain.  This  is  more  significant  when  it  is 
known  that  life  insurance  companies  frequently 
overlook  some  physical  defect  in  a  total  abstainer 
that  would  not  be  overlooked  if  the  man  was  a 
moderate  drinker.  For  instance,  a  few  weeks 
ago  a  man  with  a  fine  family  history  and  a 
good  health  record  applied  for  insurance.  His 
weight,  however,  was  beyond  normal  (about  two 
hundred  and  ten  pounds).  His  answer  as  to 
amount  of  liquor  consumed  showed  that  he  took 
about  four  drinks  of  whiskey  daily.  Had  he 
been  a  total  abstainer  his  weight  only  would 

torobably  not  have  kept  him  from  obtaining  insur- 


3 


ance,  but  the  two  things  combined  caused  his  re¬ 
jection. 

A  word  in  regard  to  the  death  losses  among 
heavyweights.  The  average  man  five  feet  six 
inches  weighs  one  hundred  and  forty-six  pounds 
and  the  normal  variations  from  this  is  about  five 
pounds  for  every  inch  of  height. 


It  is  discovered  that  the  death  rate  is  less 
among  men  slightly  lighter  than  the  average  and 
increases  pretty  steadily  from  five  per  cent  abovjs 
the  average  upward. 

A  large  insurance  company  reporting  on  meiji 
thirty  per  cent  or  more  above  the  average  the 
death  loss  has  been  one  hundred  and  fifty-two 
per  cent  of  the  expected.  However,  among  heavw 
young  men  from  about  eighten  to  twenty-five  t 
years  of  age  the  death  rate  is  more  favorable  than 
the  average.  Thus  it  would  seem  that  where 
men  are  naturally  heavy  they  were  desirable  risks 
Those  who  become  corpulent  through  excessive 
drinking  and  excessive  eating  have  quantities  of 
dead  matter  in  their  system  that  nature  has  not 
been  able  to  throw  off  and  hence  the  risk  of  death 
becomes  greatly  augmented. 

You  will  take  notice  in  reading  of  death  noticed 
of  those  dying  of  sunstroke  during  the  hot  spells 
in  the  Eastern  cities  that  more  than  three-fourthsj 
of  them  are  men.  One  day  when  over  forty  pa¬ 
tients  had  been  carried  into  a  hospital  in  Phila¬ 
delphia,  I  visited  that  institution  and  inquiring  of 
an  old  attendant  there  as  to  the  condition  of  the 
patients  when  brought  in  he  voluntarily  furnished 
me  the  information  that  nine-tenths  of  them  were 
“full”  when  brought  in. 

A  Life  Insurance  Company  has  greater  control 
over  its  death  rate  than  over  its  interest  rate. 
Large  amounts  of  money  must  be  invested  ac- 


I 

cording  to  the  ruling  rate  of  interest  with  only 
slight  variations. 

The  death  rate  of  a  company  depends  in  the 
first  place  upon  the  character  of  the  agents.  An 
agent  who  patronizes  a  saloon  will  make  friends 
in  that  class,  and  if  that  class  are  insured  a  high 
death  rate  must  result.  An  unprincipled  agent 
might  make  corrupt  arrangements  with  a  com¬ 
plaisant  physician  who  will  pass  bad  risks  for  a 
consideration. 

There  are  certain  races  of  people  shorter  lived 
than  others.  The  average  length  of  life  seems 
to  depend  largely  upon  the  morals.  The  death 
rate  of  tropical  climates  is  much  higher  than 
that  of  the  temperate  climates,  and  the  death  rate 
of  cities  higher  than  that  of  the  countries.  The 
death  rate  of  fat  men  or  very  lean  men  is  higher 
than  those  of  normal  weight.  The  average  life 
of  the  ancestry  and  the  diseases  of  which  they 
died  largely  control  the  length  of  life  of  their  de- 
cendants. 

A  great  deal  of  attention  is  lately  being  paid  to 
what  is  called  “moral  hazard.’’  A  man  known  to 
be  gambling,  whether  it  is  speculation  or  plain 
betting,  has  his  moral  hazard  risk  increased. 
There  is  a  high  death  rate  among  such  politicians 
who  are  known  as  “Grafters,”  such  as  bribe  or 
accept  bribes. 

In  +he  great  Insurance  investigation  an  ap¬ 
palling  percentage  of  those  involved  died  about 
eighteen  months  after  exposure.  Of  four  men  in¬ 
dicted  for  the  graft  of  $9,000,000  for  the  furniture 
of  the  state  capital  of  Pennsylvania,  I  think  I 
am  correct  in  saying  that  three  deceased  within 
a  few'  months  after  they  were  found  out.  The 
death  rate  is  also  very  high  among  those  men 
who  betray  financial  trusts,  such  as  defaulting 


5 


bankers  and  those  who  spend  estates  entrusted 
to  their  care. 

By  carefully  watching  all  risks — moral,  physi¬ 
cal,  family  history,  occupation,  climatic  condi¬ 
tions,  habits,  etc.,  one  company  has  been  able  to 
reduce  its  death  rate  over  a  period  of  forty-five 
years  to  less  than  sixty-one  per  cent  of  the  ex¬ 
pected,  according  to  the  American  Death  Table. 

A  man  who  goes  on  a  roaring  drunk  occasion¬ 
ally  and  then  for  weeks  drinks  nothing  at  all  is 
a  better  risk  than  a  man  who  never  gets  drunk 
but  is  always  drinking. 

From  a  paper  read  by  Roderick  McKenzie  be¬ 
fore  the  British  Institute  of  Actuaries  it  appears 
that  between  the  ages  of  thirty  and  forty  years 
there  were  abstainers’  deaths  of  42,001  among  a 
certain  number,  and  drinkers,  70,041.  At  ages 
from  forty  to  fifty,  abstainers,  6,246,  and  drinkers, 
10,861.  It  is  a  popular  idea  that  in  old  age  drink 
is  good  for  the  length  of  life.  I  believe  there 
are  no  statistics  to  prove  this  contention,  al¬ 
though  the  figures  do  show  that  there  is  less  dif¬ 
ference  between  drinkers  and  abstainers  in  old 
age  than  in  earlier  years.  But  I  believe  the  time 
never  comes  when  the  death  rate  is  not  higher 
for  the  moderate  drinkers. 

The  death  rate  for  Canada  is  lower  than  that  of 
United  States.  They  consume  less  liquor  per 
head.  The  death  rate  of  United  States  is  less 
than  Great  Britain.  Great  Britain  less  than 
France  and  Germany.  The  death  rate  of  Scan¬ 
dinavia  is  less  than  any  other  European  nation 
having  a  large  portion  of  territory  that  is  under 
the  prohibitory  law.  The  death  rate  of  all  these 
nations  is  almost  in  proportion  to  the  number 
of  gallons  consumed  yearly. 

The  Sceptre  Life  Insurance  Society,  Limited, 
of  England,  for  the  years  from  1884  to  1903,  in- 


6 


elusive,  gives  the  following  figures:  For  abstain¬ 
ers,  1,440  expected  deaths,  actual  deaths  792;  non¬ 
abstainers,  2,730  expected  deaths,  actual  deaths 
1880.  The  ratio  being  fifty-five  per  cent  for  the 
total  abstainers  and  seventy-nine  per  cent  for  the 
non-abstainers. 

Scottish  Temperance  Life  Assurance  Company, 
Limited,  for  twenty  years,  from  1883  to  1902,  in¬ 
clusive,  shows  abstainers  die  at  the  rate  of  only 
forty-five  per  cent  of  the  expected  and  non-ab¬ 
stainers  at  the  rate  of  seventy-one  per  cent  of 
the  expected. 

The  Actuary  of  the  Mutual  Life  Insurance 
Company  of  New  York  undertook  a  study  of  the 
effect  of  drink  on  the  death  rate  of  his  company, 
taking  the  American  Death  Table  as  a  guide  and 
shaving  this  about  twenty-five  per  cent  for  the 
first  five  years  to  cover  the  effect  of  selection, 
and  then  comparing  actual  losses  with  this 
amended  table  among  abstainers  he  found  the  ex¬ 
pected  loss  of  5,455,669  and  an  actual  loss  of 
4,251,050.  This  was  a  rate  of  seventy-eight  per 
cent  of  the  expected.  Of  the  drinkers  the  ex¬ 
pected  loss  was  9,829,462  and  the  actual  loss  was 
9,469,407.  The  drinkers  showing  ninety-six  per 
cent  loss  as  compared  with  the  other  section  of 
seventy-eight  per  cent. 

It  should  be  remembered  at  the  same  time  that 
Life  Insurance  companies  are  supposed  not  to 
insure  anyone  who  is  an  immoderate  drinker. 
Every  company  that  I  am  acquainted  with  asks 
in  the  application  particularly  as  to  these  habits — 
drink,  opium,  smoking  and  other  drugs,  the  same 
as  they  inquire  into  the  diseases  and  defects  of 
family  record.  If  the  death  rate  of  the  selected 
drinkers  is  one-third  greater  than  abstainers  what 
will  be  the  still  higher  death  rate  among  those 
whose  habits  preclude  their  being  insured  at  all? 


7 


Comparatively  few  Life  Insurance  companies 
insure  liquor  dealers,  and  the  latest  custom  when 
companies  accept  them  is  to  add  twelve  years  to 
the  actual  age  of  the  applicant.  What  place  ought 
civilization  grant  to  any  business  that  will  sub¬ 
tract  twelve  years  from  the  life  of  the  man  who 
runs  it? 

In  1903  a  committee  of  the  Acturial  Society 
published  a  book  giving  the  results  of  mortality 
experience  of  the  leading  Life  Insurance  com¬ 
panies  of  this  country  on  ninety-eight  different 
classes  of  lives,  and  among  those  classes  are  hve 
which  may  have  some  bearing  on  the  point  at 
issue.  The  experience  covered  was  for  thirty 
years  from  1870  to  1899,  inclusive,  i.  e.,  all  policies 
issued  during  those  years  showing  their  experi¬ 
ence  for  the  time  they  were  in  force. 

Under  the  head  “Hotel  Keepers  Not  Tending 
Bar”  there  were  1,188  deaths,  when  only  97r.9 
were  expected,  i.  e.,  122  per  cent  of  the  expecta¬ 
tion  by  the  Modified  Healthy  English  Mortality 
Table  (being  the  same  Table  applied  to  all 
classes).  Under  the  head  “Wine  or  Liquor  Seller 
Abstainer,”  there  were  41 1  deaths  for  an  expecta¬ 
tion  of  343.7,  i.  e.,  an  actual  mortality  of  119  per 
cent  of  the  expected.  Under  the  head  of  “Wine 
and  Liquor  Seller,  Non-Abstainer,”  there  were 
1,704  deaths,  against  an  expectation  of  1,303,  i.  e., 
13 1  per  cent  actual  deaths,  as  compared  with  the 
expected.  Under  the  head  of  “Brewer  or  Em¬ 
ployee,”  796  deaths  against  an  expectation  of 
588.2,  or  136  per  cent  of  the  expected.  Under 
the  head  of  “Distiller  or  Employee”  205  actual 
deaths,  against  192.4  expected,  or  106  per  cent  of 
the  expected. 

From  this  it  would  appear  than  even  the  total 
abstainers  who  handle  liquor  are  not  exempt  from 
the  wages  of  sin  as  they  die  at  the  rate  of  119 


8 


per  cent  of  the  expected.  Either  the  business 
itself  is  a  life  depressant  or  the  mentally,  or  mor¬ 
ally,  or  physically  deficient  enter  the  business. 
Whatever  the  cause,  or  they  fail  to  tell  the  truth 
when  applying  for  Life  Insurance,  the  death  rate 
even  among  the  total  abstaining  liquor  dealers  is 
19  per  cent  greater  than  the  expected.  It  also 
appears  that  the  Brewery  Employee  and  Brewer 
have  a  greater  death  rate  as  a  class  than  any 
other  class  connected  with  the  business  except 
the  bartender.  This  would  indicate  that  beer  in¬ 
stead  of  being  a  safe  drink  is  on  the  whole  a 
most  injurious  one. 

The  death  rate  of  the  average  man  engaged  in 
the  liquor  business  is  greater  than  the  following 
dangerous  occupations  and  of  those  who  have 
suffered  the  following  diseases  as  below  quoted: 


Railroad  locomotive  engineer . 127 

Seaman  or  fisherman . 108 

Steel  grinder . T20 

City  fire  department . U3 

Officer  in  the  Army . 1  [6 

Persons  having  had — 

Renal  colic,  calculus  or  gravel . T07 

Blood-spitting . to8 

Inflammatory  rheumatism  more  than  once..TO/ 

Hip-joint  disease . r28 

Syph  ill  is . 133 


The  power  of  evil  seems  to  be  commensurate 
with  the  power  to  deceive  and  it  is  only  as  it 
was  written  that  the  devil  was  a  liar  from  the  be¬ 
ginning.  so  his  chief  vicegerent,  the  liquor  traffic, 
has  been  the  greatest  deceiver  of  mankind.  Men 
have  thought  to  obtain  lengthened  life  by  it  and 
have  invited  death  instead;  they  have  sought 
health  by  it  and  thereby  multiplied  their  diseases; 
they  have  obtained  the  devil’s  joy,  which  is  nine- 
tenths  pain;  they  have  sought  to  obtain  intellect- 


9 


ual  acuteness  and  have  ended  with  cooked  brains; 
it  has  promised  riches  to  the  State  and  costs  $9 
of  taxes  to  $1  of  revenue  to  the  State;  it  prom¬ 
ises  yet  an  easy  way  of  living  for  the  saloon¬ 
keeper  and  gives  instead  a  kind  of  life  that  is 
not  worth  the  living,  as  the  suicide  statistics  of 
saloonkeepers  indicate. 

The  wisest  man  of  the  ages  more  than  three 
thousand  years  ago  said:  “Wine  is  a  deceiver  and 
strong  drink  is  raging,  and  whosoever  is  deceived 
thereby  is  not  wise.” 

Even  the  medical  fraternity  have  been  deceived 
and  their  deception  has  added  to  the  death  toll  of 
each  succeeding  generation,  from  poisoned  infants 
to  the  drugging  of  men  already  poisoned  with 
disease  up  till  old  age,  where  they  add  artificial 
palsy  to  the  decreptitude  of  the  already  infirmed. 
Proofs  are  coming  in  constantly  now  that  mil¬ 
lions  of  men  have  been  slain  by  the  doctors  ad¬ 
ministering  the  poison  of  alcohol. 

The  London  Temperance  Hospital  which  for 
over  twenty-five  years  has  not  used  a  drop  of 
liquor  has  lately  published  their  experience,  and 
in  Typhoid  Fever  especially  that  Hospital  has  had 
a  death  rate  of  thirty  per  cent  less  than  the 
other  London  hospitals. 

The  ordinary  doctor  taking  a  Tyhpoid  Fever 
patient  after  the  body  has  created  antitoxines  and 
destroyed  the  disease  germs,  and  the  fever  has 
ceased  and  nature  takes  a  breathing  spell  before 
starting  on  the  upward  grade,  and  nature  seems 
inert,  the  fool  doctor  as  a  rule  still  pours  the 
poison  into  the  system.  Nature  recognizes  the 
toxic  and  in  alarm  starts  all  the  organs  of  the 
body  to  work  to  rid  itself  of  the  new  poison — 
liver,  kidneys,  lungs,  heart,  perspiration,  and  if  a 
nursing  mother,  her  milk  will  cary  off  the  alcohol. 
Every  organ  of  the  body  that  can  do  any  work 


10 


sets  itself  to  rid  the  system  of  the  poison,  and  at 
this  point  the  doctor,  recognizing  the  activity, 
says  the  patient  is  better.  The  fact  is  that  the 
little  strength  the  patient  has  left  is  being  drained 
to  rid  itself  of  the  extra  burden  and  shortly  after, 
unless  the  patient  is  strong,  he  collapses  and  dies. 
It  has  taken  the  medical  profession  thousands  of 
years  to  begin  to  discern  the  difference  between 
the  final  effects  and  the  immediate  symptoms. 

Dr.  Spratling  reports  a  history  of  alcoholism  in 
the  parents  of  three  hundred  and  thirteen  out  of 
nine  hundred  and  fifty  cases.  More  than  twenty- 
two  per  cent  of  these  unfortunates  are  thus  suf¬ 
fering  from  the  mistakes  of  their  parents.  Nor 
does  this  by  any  means  tell  the  whole  story,  for 
the  report  shows  that  five  hundred  and  seventy- 
seven  additional  cases  (more  than  sixty  per  cent 
of  the  whole)  suffer  from  “neuropathic  heredity,” 
which  means  that  their  parents  were  themselves 
the  victims  of  one  or  another  of  the  neuroses  that 
are  peculiarly  heritable,  and  that  unquestionably 
tell  in  a  large  number  of  cases  of  alcoholic,  indulg¬ 
ence  on  the  part  of  their  progenitor^  "Fven  to 
the  third  and  fourth  generation,”  said  the  wise 
Hebrew  of  old.  And  the  laws  of  heredity  have 
not  changed  since  then. 

The  world  is  just  beginning  to  waken  up  to  the 
necessity  of  sanitation  in  reference  to  tubercu¬ 
losis.  This  has  been  found  to  be  a  germ  disease 
and  preventable,  but  probably  the  greatest  ally  to 
the  disease  has  been  liquor. 

Somewhat  startling  statistics  from  the  Prov¬ 
inces  of  France  show  that  those  Provinces  drink¬ 
ing  the  least  wine  have  the  fewest  deaths  from 
tuberculosis;  and  those  Provinces  having  the 
greatest  number  of  gallons  of  wine  per  head  con¬ 
sumed  have  the  most  deaths  from  tuberculosis. 

Of  the  saloonkeepers  of  France,  out  of  every 


11 


thousand  that  die  more  than  five  hundred  of  them 
die  of  consumption.  Thus  the  saloon  is  not  only 
a  moral  plague  spot,  but  a  physical  one  as  well. 

We  will  now  consider  for  a  moment  the  death 
rate  of  those  actually  engaged  in  the  liquor  busi¬ 
ness.  First,  we  will  take  Germany,  where  it  is 
said  they  can  always  drink  and  never  be  drunk. 
In  Prussia  in  1901  out  of  159,000  deaths  occur¬ 
ring  after  twenty-five  years  of  age,  fifty-two  per 
cent  of  the  whole  lived  to  over  sixty.  Of  per¬ 
sons  insured  in  the  Gotha  Life  Insurance  Com¬ 
pany,  of  physicians  forty-nine  per  cent  live  to 
over  sixty;  of  teachers,  fifty-one  per  cent;  of 
clergy,  sixty-five  per  cent;  of  men  engaged  in 
the  liquor  trades,  average  thirty-one  per  cent; 
brewery  employees,  eighteen  per  cent;  bartenders, 
seven  per  cent.  According  to  these  figures  the 
bartender  has  only  one  chance  in  nine  as  to  the 
preacher  in  living  to  over  sixty  years  of  age. 

In  Prussia  of  every  one  thousand  deaths  oc¬ 
curring  over  twenty-five  years  of  age,  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  sixty-one  are  from  tuberculosis.  But 
every  one  thousand  deaths  among  bartenders,  five 
hundred  and  fifty-six  are  from  tuberculosis. 
Among  Brewery  employees  three  hundred  and 
forty-five.  School  teachers,  one  hundred  and 
forty-three.  Physicians,  one  hundred  and  thirteen. 
Clergy,  seventy-six.  The  average  covering  all 
callings  would  be  much  less  if  the  death  rate  in 

liquor  trades  was  eliminated. 

In  the  statistics  of  accidents,  the  miners  show 
ninety  accidents  to  the  thousand,  the  breweries 
one  hundred  and  eighteen  per  thousand.  This  is 
a  higher  average  than  any  other  trade,  even  the 
most  perilous,  and  Professor  Guttstadt  gives  to 
these  the  name  of  “bier-leiche”  (beer  corpses!. 

Before  Theodore  Roosevelt  became  President 
he  was  appointed  Police  Commissioner  of  New 
York.  He  found  an  ordinance  closing  saloons  on 
Sunday,  and  contrary  to  the  opinions  of  almost 


12 


the  whole  press  of  the  city  and  without  much  aid 
from  the  three  other  police  commissioners,  pro¬ 
ceeded  to  enforce  the  law.  The  death  rate  of 
the  city  immediately  dropped  nearly  five  per  cent, 
and  if  my  recollection  serves  me,  the  deposits  in 
the  savings  banks  increased  over  $1,000,000  per 
week  during  this  enforcement. 

The  tendencies  of  liquor  drinking  toward 
causing  suicide  has  received  ample  verification 
before  and  after  the  earthquake  of  San  Francisco 
in  1906.  During  the  Ruef  and  Schmitz  admin¬ 
istration  the  suicide  rate  of  the  city  reached  an 
enormous  proportion,  being  sixty-one  per  one  hun¬ 
dred  thousand  in  1905.  The  next  highest  in  America 
being  Hoboken,  N.  J.,  at  29;  Oakland,  Calif.,  was 
26.7;  Chicago,  20.4;  New  York  City,  17.7;  and 
Philadelphia  14.  i.  e.,  the  suicide  rate  of  San 
Francisco  was  nearly  three  times  the  larger  of 
any  of  the  other  large  cities.  There  they  were 
killing  themselves  at  the  rate  of  two  every  three 
days.  In  May  and  June,  1905,  there  were  forty- 
eight  suicides  in  the  city.  Then  came  the  earth¬ 
quake  and  fire  and  two  months  of  prohibition. 
San  Francisco  went  home  for  the  first  time  in  its 
life  sober.  Tens  of  thousands  of  women  who  had 
dreaded  to  see  their  husbands  return  home  had 
a  few  weeks  of  happiness. 

I  am  fully  satisfied  that  the  average  man  and 
woman  in  San  Francisco  was  happier  two  weeks 
after  the  great  earthquake  and  the  fire  than  two 
weeks  before.  It  is  a  very  forcible  reminder  of 
the  Scripture,  “A  man’s  life  consisteth  not  in  the 
abundance  of  the  things  that  he  possesseth.” 
There  was  more  brotherly  kindness  and  of  gen¬ 
eral  good  cheer,  less  selfishness,  and  very  many 
less  heartaches,  all  of  which  was  reflected  plainly 
in  the  faces  of  the  average  men  of  the  city.  I 
studied  phenomenon  as  keenly  as  I  ever  studied 


13 


any  sociological  question.  There  arc  probably 
more  men  alive  today,  notwithstanding  the  sev¬ 
eral  hundreds  of  deaths  of  the  earthquake,  than 
there  would  have  been  if  the  so-called  disaster 
had  not  occurred.  In  suicides  alone  there  are 
several  hundred  more  men  alive  than  there  would 
have  been  at  the  old  rate. 

The  saddest  sight  I  saw  in  the  whole  time  of 
the  disaster  was  that  of  a  drunk  crazed  woman 
with  a  big  bottle  of  liquor,  and  a  young  daughter 
about  thirteen  years  of  age  trying  to  take  the  bot¬ 
tle  from  her,  and  a  man  apparently  the  husband 
of  the  woman,  aiding  the  daughter  to  get  pos¬ 
session  of  the  liquor.  The  frantic  cries  of  the 
daughter  and  the  demonial  determination  of  the 
drunken  woman  to  continue  her  debauch  among 
the  smoking  ruins  were  more  pitiful  and  frightful 
than  the  view  of  the  ruined  city. 

During  the  two  months  of  prohibition  the  sui¬ 
cide  rate  of  San  Francisco  dropped  from  48.  to 
8.  just  at  the  time  when  we  had  experienced  the 
appallingly  disastrous  loss  of  property  and  friends, 
and  when  it  would  be  imagined  that  self-destruc¬ 
tion  would  be  more  frequent.  To  make  the  mat¬ 
ter  a  little  more  emphatic,  one  must  consider 
Oakland  (which  is  just  across  the  Bay)  with  San 
Francisco  at  this  time.  Oakland  thought  she 
needed  the  revenue  from  liquor  and  saloons  and 
kept  the  saloons  open  constantly,  attracting  all 
the  bums  of  the  city,  and  they  are  still  there 
killing  themselves,  although  San  Francisco  bids 
fair  to  get  them  all  back  shortly  under  tl^e  new 
political  conditions.  Oakland  suicide  rate  jumped 
from  26.7  in  1905  to  66.2  in  1908,  and  then  stood 
as  the  highest  suicide  city  of  any  one  in  America. 

The  suicide  rate  for  1909  which  has  just  come 
into  my  hands,  shows  San  Francisco  59.9;  Oak¬ 
land,  55. 1;  Hoboken,  52.6;  Chicago,  19.6;  New 


14 


York,  20.5;  Philadelphia,  16.2.  The  suicide  rate 
seems  to  be  increasing  in  almost  all  the  Ameri¬ 
can  cities. 

I  believe  it  is  now  conceded  that  the  Ger¬ 
man  race,  the  great  beer  drinkers,  have  more  sui¬ 
cides  than  any  other  people.  In  the  German 
Army  the  rate  is  very  high.  Beer  and  idleness 
will  make  most  any  man  feel  that  life  is  not  worth 
living,  especially  when  it  is  connected  with  other 
vices  that  go  along  not  only  with  the  saloon,  but 
with  army  life. 

It  is  a  strange  thing  that  with  the  evils  and  dis¬ 
gusting  conditions  surrounding  the  saloon  busi¬ 
ness  anyone  should  stay  in  it.  But  I  am  reminded 
of  Milton’s  “Masque  of  Comus”  in  which  he  says 
they  who  partook  of  the  cup  of  Circe  had  their 
images  transformed  to  that  of  ounce,  tiger,  hog 
or  bearded  goat,  and  they  so  perfect  in  their  mis¬ 
ery  that  they  not  once  perceive  their  foul  disfig¬ 
urement,  but  boast  themselves  more  comely  than 
before. 

And  again  it  is  an  illustration  of  the  great  truth 
in  the  Messiah’s  declaration  as  to  the  deceitful¬ 
ness  of  riches.  If  it  were  not  for  the  money  in 
the  business  it  would  sink  of  its  own  weight,  but 
many  men  are  willing  to  run  the  risks  of  death 
bodily  and  spiritually  to  obtain  money  without 
giving  labor  or  other  value  received,  and  are  cer¬ 
tainly  deceived  in  their  expectation  of  obtaining 
happiness  in  this  manner. 


15 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS  —  URBANA 


N301 12124136141A 


